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Sunday, 29 July 2007

Potato & Pepper Hash with Corn & Cheese

Not the world's most photogenic dish, but extremely tasty and rib-sticking. I call for an onion here, but I discovered I didn't have any so I used a good handful - 6 or 8 - of my garlic scapes. That worked well.

Clean and cut the potatoes into dice. Boil them until tender, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the stems and seeds from the peppers, and chop them finely. Keep the fingies away from the eyes for the rest of the day! Peel and chop the onion.

You can cook the corn now, and cut it from the cobs, but it will be hard to do this as it will be hot. You can run them under cold water but is better if you can cook the corn earlier. When I buy a dozen ears of corn, I cook them all at once and we eat six on the cob for lunch. The next day, I have six cobs of corn ready for this.

Heat about half or two-thirds of the oil in a very large skillet. Add the drained potatoes. (If you are cooking the corn now; drain the potatoes by lifting them out with a slotted spoon, and use the boiling water to cook the corn.)

Add the prepared peppers and onion. Mix well and cook over medium heat, lifting and turning regularly. You want a nice brown patina to build up on the bottoms of the potatoes, but you do not want them to burn. Scrape up and mix in anything that sticks, but if it looks like sticking too much or scorching, you had better add a little more oil. Season with salt and pepper at some point during this process.

When the potatoes have achieved a degree of brownness that makes you happy, add the corn and heat through. When the corn is pretty much hot, mix in the cheese cubes and let melt for a minute or two. Serve at once.